Militants behind SP's wife murder: HM

RTNN News Desk: Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said that militants might be involved in the murder of Mahmuda Aktar, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Aktar, in Chittagong.

Mahmuda Aktar was stabbed and shot dead by unidentified assailants at the city’s GEC intersection in Chittagong on Sunday morning while on her way to drop her son to school.

“Babul Aktar is an efficient officer and played a key role in apprehending militants. They killed his wife because they failed to get him,” the minister told the media in Chittagong after attending a passing out parade of the Border Guard Bangladesh.

The victim’s husband, now posted at the police headquarters, led several raids on militant hideouts and investigated several terror-related cases as the additional deputy commissioner with the Detective Branch in Chittagong.

He fearlessly conducted operations against banned militant outfit Jama`atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). His investigations led to busting a hideout of JMB and arrest of its military wing chief Md Javed in October last year.

The JMB leader died a few days later in a grenade explosion when police made him accompany them in a raid on JMB hideout he had disclosed to them.

Home Minister said he thinks that the killing was aimed to send a message to police officers. “But other aspects will be also looked in to.”

Replying a query, he said that they will now consider security for families of police officers.

“Militants have adopted this strategy (to take on soft targets like families of police officers) because they have been cornered,” said the minister.

Police said that Mahmuda was on her way to drop off her first-grader son to a bus stop for school, like she did every day.

Three attackers, who came on a motorcycle, ambushed Mahmuda in front of her 6-year-old son. They stabbed her before shooting in the head.